Organisation: Department of Health
Job Title: Various Positions – APS6
Word Limit: 1 page
Location: Canberra
In my current role of Risk Manager with the Business Integrity Support Centre (BISC) at the
Department of Human Services (DHS), I am responsible for providing support to a large team of
staff on different sites with complex enquiries, prioritising workloads and ensuring productivity is
maintained. This requires excellent communication and negotiation skills and the ability to build
and maintain productive working relationships.
Recently, in undertaking an acting role as Team Leader within BISC, I supervised a challenging
team of staff, some of whom have special needs. This team was underperforming, and my role
was to manage them to bring their performance up to acceptable levels. After initially analysing
the individual members’ capabilities through their KPI statistics and my observations, I identified
some specific areas of need within the team. Through high level interpersonal skills, showing some
empathy for the team and working together on skills development, I managed to bring what was a
significant lag back to acceptable levels, and brought the team members closer together as a
result. Some of these staff members have now moved to a higher level with more responsibility.
My confident negotiation skills assist me to explain guidelines, rules or legislation to help people
understand the Department’s strategic position in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome, but
still within lawful boundaries. I handle any situations requiring negotiation by planning my
conversations beforehand, clearly explaining the situation and listening to and considering
different ideas attentively. Additionally, I always approach customers, stakeholders or staff with a
clear understanding of the key issues and reflect on the desired outcome. With that in mind, I can
make a convincing argument to persuade individuals to see the advantage rather than
disadvantage in what we are doing. When I have negotiated certain terms with a customer or staff
member, I listen to their differing views and approach the matter by explaining the situation and
then presenting options designed to sound more positive to them.
My current role as Risk Manager gives me responsibility within the Taskforce Customer
Compliance area. DHS has partnered with the Australian Federal Police to tackle non-compliance
and welfare fraud across Australia. My role requires a significant amount of analysis and
evaluation of customer data by geographical areas of the country and the ability to organise and
use that information to identify potential compliance issues. I am also required to work within a
team to monitor and evaluate different areas, and make decisions around what the data is
indicating and where to target our resources.
I am committed to providing excellent customer service to our customers. Not only can I analyse
information, solve problems based on that information and decide what is important, but I have
also coached and trained other staff to further their skills in this area as well. An example of this
includes my assistance with the rollout of the Customer First program, where I was first trained in
using the system so I could then provide training for current team members in the Customer
Compliance Branch (CCB). I provide training and assistance to new Workload Management team
members and supply them with relevant step-by-step task cards to assist them, also
demonstrating my ability to communicate effectively. I have the ability to analyse data and send
out weekly reports to the team leaders relating to Subject Matter Expert (SME) cases, Work on
Hand reports and outstanding Debts that need urgent action.
With the ability to step into most of the roles within my office, I have, on more than one occasion,
kept the level of productivity to a high standard when staff have had unplanned absences from
work. This was demonstrated recently where a staff member was away, having been diagnosed
with cancer, and I stood in for them and managed their portfolio, ensuring the team output was
maintained, all risks were covered and the team could continue to work in a business as usual
fashion. My Manager has often commended me for my ability to maintain productivity in this way.
In addition to this, if a senior staff member is away I am responsible for providing data for the
Subject Matter Expert (SME) report and Debt Shell activities.
Having successfully completed Trainer Certificates I, 2 and 3, I have demonstrated my ability to
lead, motivate and manage staff to achieve quality outcomes. On a day to day basis, I not only
manage my own workload and set priorities and practices, but am responsible for ensuring that
staff across numerous other sites are allocated an appropriate workload to keep them productive,
but not overwhelmed with work. I monitor this consistently and top-up work as required,
allocating around 80% of the overall workload to a range of sites to complete. In addition to this,
my role includes monitoring the percentage of work completed within given timeframes and to
ensure output meets targets. Since working in this role, I have consistently met requirements and
targets and have also successfully worked to support others in their teams without reducing my
own team’s productivity.
As a Subject Matter Expert within numerous teams throughout my career, I have delivered quality
outcomes through using my skills as an experienced officer to not only solve problems and make
decisions, but also to review decisions made by others. This involved reviewing decisions, having
not been involved in the original decision-making process, and ensuring the process has been
accurate and unbiased. Similarly, I have worked within the Customer Relations Unit (CRU) where
customers can give feedback regarding staff. I have had to resolve and coordinate the response to
customers after speaking to the affected staff member, further demonstrating my ability to deliver
quality outcomes, manage staff effectively and deal with sensitive issues.
